News & Comment

The longevity of a lithium-ion battery is limited by cathode degradation. Combining atom probe tomography and scanning transmission electron microscopy reveals that the degradation results from atomic-scale irreversible structural changes once lithium leaves the cathode during charging, thereby inhibiting lithium intercalation back into the cathode as the battery discharges. This information unveils possible routes for improving the lifetime of lithium-ion batteries.

While genomic instability is a hallmark of cancer, its genetic vulnerabilities remain poorly understood. Identifying strategies that exploit genomic instability to selectively target cancer cells is a central challenge in cancer biology with major implications for anti-cancer drug development.

The fast-growing interest for two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials is undermined by their natural restacking tendency, which severely limits their practical application. Novel porous heterostructures that coordinate 2D nanosheets with monolayered mesoporous scaffolds offer an opportunity to greatly expand the library of advanced materials suitable for electrochemical energy storage technologies.

Water ice exists in hugely different environments, artificially or naturally occurring ones across the universe. The phase diagram of crystalline phases of ice is still under construction: a high-pressure phase, ice XIX, has just been reported but its structure remains ambiguous.

The cascade of innovations in biotechnology opens new pathways for biological warfare. The international laboratory network being developed under the UN Secretary-General’s Mechanism could provide vital evidence in case of an alleged biological attack.

Proteins and peptides are amongst the most widely used research reagents but often their quality is inadequate and can result in poor data reproducibility. Here we propose a simple set of guidelines that, when correctly applied to protein reagents should provide more reliable experimental data.

Opportunities for early career researchers (ECRs) to engage with the peer review and publication process can be few and far between. Last year, we launched a pilot support programme to introduce ECRs to peer review.

The year 2020 brought unprecedented challenges, and opportunities to reassess and reaffirm our values. As our anniversary year draws to a close, we reflect on achievements and areas for improvement.

Photocatalytic air purification is a promising technology that mimics nature’s photochemical process, but its practical applications are still limited despite considerable research efforts in recent decades. Here, we briefly discuss the progress and challenges associated with this technology.

Transient transfections are routinely used in basic and synthetic biology studies to unravel pathway regulation and to probe and characterise circuit designs. As each experiment has a component of intrinsic variability, reporter gene expression is usually normalized with co-delivered genes that act as transfection controls. Recent reports in mammalian cells highlight how resource competition for gene expression leads to biases in data interpretation, with a direct impact on co-transfection experiments. Here we define the connection between resource competition and transient transfection experiments and discuss possible alternatives. Our aim is to raise awareness within the community and stimulate discussion to include such considerations in future experimental designs, for the development of better transfection controls.

Singleton and colleagues publish in Nature Communications an intervention study to reduce antimicrobial usage in companion animal practice. They identify significant reductions in antimicrobial usage with their more active intervention group over approximately a 6-month period. The study offers an exciting way forward to explore further the trial interventions and assess alternative methods to improve antimicrobial stewardship in veterinary practice.

Precise knowledge of chemical composition and atomic structure of functional nanosized systems, such as metal clusters stabilized by an organic molecular layer, allows for detailed computational work to investigate structure-property relations. Here, we discuss selected recent examples of computational work that has advanced understanding of how these clusters work in catalysis, how they interact with biological systems, and how they can make self-assembled, macroscopic materials. A growing challenge is to develop effective new simulation methods that take into account the cluster-environment interactions. These new hybrid methods are likely to contain components from electronic structure theory combined with machine learning algorithms for accelerated evaluations of atom-atom interactions.

Equitable partnerships among the international volcano science community are important now more than ever, to cope with financial disparities and ultimately allow for worldwide volcano monitoring oriented to hazard mitigation.

The various restrictions applied across the globe to contain the COVID-19 pandemic have been impacting the way we knew how to work. Dr. Matthews (a scientific program manager at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke—NINDS), Dr. David del Álamo Rodriguez (head of the European Molecular Biology Organization—EMBO—fellowship program), and Dr. Gray (Associate Dean for the Sciences at the Advanced Science Research Center of the City University of New York) shared with Nature Communications their thoughts on how funders and university leadership can support early career researchers and young faculty through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The various restrictions applied across the globe to contain the COVID-19 pandemic have been impacting the way we knew how to work. Ms. Wilson (a PhD student in Earth System Science at Stanford University), Dr. Xin (a glia biologist and postdoctoral fellow at University of California San Francisco), and Dr. Saidaminov (a researcher in advanced functional materials and Assistant Professor at the University of Victoria) shared with Nature Communications their thoughts on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting their professional development and career progression and their coping strategies.

Replication inside macrophages is crucial for systemic dissemination of Salmonella in hosts. In a Nature Communications article, Jiang et al. show that Salmonella stimulates glycolysis and represses serine synthesis in macrophages, leading to accumulation of host glycolytic intermediates that the bacteria use as carbon source and as cues for its replication.

Liver cancer typically arises after years of inflammatory insults to hepatocytes. These cells can change their ploidy state during health and disease. Whilst polyploidy may offer some protection, new research shows it may also promote the formation of liver tumours.

Delineation of the genomic complexities of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) has lagged behind other malignancies. Zhang et al. meaningfully add to our understanding of MPM, and their findings emphasize the need to combine drug development efforts with appropriate predictive biomarkers.

Synthetic metagenomics could potentially unravel the complexities of microbial ecosystems by revealing the simplicity of microbial communities captured in a single cell. Conceptionally, a yeast cell carrying a representative synthetic metagenome could uncover the complexity of multi-species interactions, illustrated here with wine ferments.

The unprecedented cost of the 2018 eruption in Hawai’i reflects an intersection of disparate physical and social phenomena: widely spaced, highly destructive eruptions, and atypically high population growth. These were linked and the former indirectly drove the latter with unavoidable consequences.